You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.
~Buddha
Valentine’s day is almost here. Yep, it's that time of year where the stores fill up with sweet heart-shaped candy, commercialized cards, and chocolate Hershey’s kisses. Depending on where you are in life, Valentine's Day can be an incredible day or an incredibly irritating one. Those of you who find this day irritating and commercialized, let me reframe another way of looking at this sentimental day.
Valentine’s Day can be perceived in various different ways. You can see it as a romantic day with a significant other, flowers, cards, chocolates, the works, or as a day where you find opportunities to practice self-care. Instead of receiving flowers, cards, and candy, you could bring flowers to someone who is grieving or who is mending a broken heart, buy them for yourself, or all of the above. You could write and mail, yes you read that correctly, mail a thank you card to a family member, colleague, or friend or even to yourself expressing how much you appreciate them, or buy your favorite candy to share with others or not at all. You could volunteer at a homeless and/or animal shelter, hospital, help a neighbor in need, donate items, or raise funds for an important cause to name a few.
Self-care could also include giving yourself permission to take a relaxing day, maybe even two to slow down, unplug, and recharge. When you become aware of the importance of self-care, your brain switches gears and invites more opportunities for rejuvenating your mind, body, and heart. Before you know it, Valentine’s day becomes less irritating and more meaningful.
This brings me to a popular self-care technique called Loving Kindness Meditation (LKM). Essentially, while sitting in a quiet and comfortable position, you repeat the following phrases to yourself: May I be happy, May I be safe, May I be healthy, May I live with ease. Then you silently repeat to yourself the same phrase while visualizing someone you love and then someone you may not love as much, which can make LKM a bit of a challenge at times. It takes practice, consistency and time to learn how to receive love and send love to others. The idea of the LMK technique is to free yourself from negative emotions while strengthening your capacity to be compassionate towards yourself and the people in your life. Leo Buscaligia, a popular college professor who taught a class on love, said, to love others, you must love yourself. “You can only give to others what you have yourself.” As we near another Valentine’s day, find ways to care for yourself and then others. You might find yourself feeling more love and less irritated.
Loving Kindness Meditation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj0JDwQLof4